DARREN DUPONT
Sports Writer

The Saskatoon Blades are trying to do something they haven’t been able to do in franchise history: win the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL league champions.

They appear to be headed in the right direction.

The Blades were ranked eighth in the country and third in the WHL when the Canadian Hockey League announced its preseason BMO CHL Mastercard top 10 rankings but few could have envisioned just how successful the season would be.

The Bridge City bunch went on to win a franchise best 56 games going 56-13-1-2 for 115 points, earning them the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s regular season champion.

It was early in January at the WHL’s trade deadline that the Blades declared themselves legitimate contenders for a championship when they acquired hometown superstar Brayden Schenn from the Brandon Wheat Kings in exchange for draft picks and prospects. The Los Angeles Kings prospect finished the season with 53 points in 27 games with the Blades.

“[Schenn has] been a real positive addition, obviously,” said Blades head coach Lorne Molleken. “It was an opportunity to bring Brayden home to finish out his junior career and he was coming to a team, at that time, that was first place overall and he was real excited about the challenge that was in front of him and right now he seems very focused and very determined to help this team succeed.”

Depth may have been the biggest key to the team’s success this season as seven players scored at least 20 goals while five of those players recored 30 or more goals. Four players surpassed the 80 point mark and seven had 57 points or more. The Blades boast depth that could arguably rival any team in the country.

The Blades have been in existence since the WHL was founded in 1966-67 but have gone without a championship in the franchise’s 44 year history in the league. That drought hasn’t been without some close calls.

As hosts, the Blades made the Memorial Cup final in 1989 only to lose in overtime to the Swift Current Broncos. The team also lost in the WHL league finals in 1992 and 1994 to the Kamloops Blazers in seven games. The Blades are winless in five trips to the WHL league finals.

The Blades drew their rivals, the Prince Albert Raiders, as first round playoff opponents and jumped out to a two game lead after a pair of wins in Saskatoon. The Blades really flexed their muscles, outscoring the Raiders 13-3 in the two wins.

“It takes a long time to build depth and that was our strength all year and certainly in these first two games its played a huge part,” said head coach Lorne Molleken after the second game against the Raiders. “Our plan is to play four lines as much as possible, six defencemen, and I’m real pleased with everybody’s efforts.

Molleken said the Blades deserved to win the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy and that they were ready for the playoffs.

“The Blades have never won a championship here and certainly our fans have been very supportive over the years and it would be nice to win a championship but, as a team, we know that it’s going to be very demanding, we know it’s going to take a lot of hard work [to win a championship] because there’s a lot of real good teams out there that we’re going to have to beat, starting with the Prince Albert Raiders.”

Brayden Schenn